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The Citizens' Voice File
Nick Drazenovic (10) was called to Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning.

WILKES-BARRE - When the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins lined up for their season opener three months ago in Bridgeport, Conn., they had a pretty much perfect mix in the middle.

They had two centers - Nick Drazenovic and Andrew Ebbett - with proven offensive track records in the AHL, both having accrued more than 200 career points. They had two other centers - Brian Gibbons and Zach Sill -with speed, tenacity and the ability to make an impact on the forecheck.

When the Penguins practiced Tuesday morning at Coal Street, they were all gone.

Drazenovic was the latest to flee, called up to Pittsburgh for the first time since signing with the Penguins in July. He's expected to make his debut for the parent club against Washington tonight.

Why did Drazenovic get the call?

First, Pittsburgh's forwards ranks are riddled with injuries, and that might be an understatement.

Gibbons (lower body, out at least a week), Joe Vitale (upper body, out about three weeks) and James Neal (upper body, day to day) were injured on a recent western road trip. Beau Bennett (hand/wrist), Jayson Megna (lower body), Chuck Kobasew (lower body) and Ebbett (ankle) are skating but haven't been cleared to return to the lineup.

Second, Drazenovic has been one of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's best players in recent weeks. Since returning from an injury Dec. 11, he's the team's leading scorer with 10 points (5 goals-5 assists) in 14 games.

"He's played very consistent since he's come back," coach John Hynes said.

In keeping with the theme of gross understatements, the four centers who practiced at Coal Street after Drazenovic was called up have considerably less experience than the four from opening night.

Drazenovic, Ebbett, Gibbons and Sill had combined for 617 career AHL points between them at that point. The four remaining WBS centers - Denver Manderson, Zack Torquato, Mike Carman and Carter Rowney - have 66 career AHL points between them, and 56 of those belong to Carman.

"You have to make an adjustment to the personnel you have, but we feel good with the guys that we have in there," Hynes said.

Manderson was the center in a new environment Tuesday. Hynes did not make changes to two recent line combinations - Torquato centering Anton Zlobin and Tom Kuhnhackl and Carman centering Dominik Uher and Paul Thompson. Manderson moved into Drazenovic's top-line spot with Harry Zolnierczyk and Tom Kostopoulos.

"It's an opportunity for all of us who have got up here (from the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers)," Manderson said. "We're all just trying to make the most of it. The guys who went up to Pittsburgh, I'm sure they're trying to do the same."

It's an enviable assignment for Manderson. Kostopoulos and Zolnierczyk are the two most accomplished goal-scoring wingers on the team.

"If I get that chance, I'll try to do my best," Manderson said. "Try to win faceoffs so we have the puck. Try to catch up to Z."

For his part, Kostopoulos said he isn't dreading the idea of breaking in a new center.

"I think they'll listen to what we have to say. All the centermen here have good attitudes," Kostopoulos said. "Whoever is with us, we'll be happy to play with and work hard with. It should be fun."

The Penguins don't play again until visiting Providence on Friday, so there's still time for some reinforcements to arrive from Pittsburgh. Hynes isn't counting on it, though.

"The way the year has gone, every time you think people are going to come back or it's going to turn in a different direction, there's another injury," Hynes said. "So for us right now, this is the group we have. We're going to prepare as though this is the group we're with, kind of the same way we've been all year long."

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